1. Field of the Invention .
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which can record in a plurality of directions.
2. Related Background Art
In a page printer, it is necessary to set a printing direction (orientation) to a conveying direction of a paper. In the basic command system of a conventional page printer, a changeover command of the orientation exists and the orientation can be switched to a portrait or a landscape from the host side by using the changeover command. Or, by making a switch on an operation panel 4 on the host side function, the orientation can be set by the menu system.
FIG. 7 shows an arrangement of a conventional page printer. Reference numeral 50 denotes a printer to record onto a recording paper and 5 indicates a host or host computer to generate information to be recorded by the printer 50.
In the printer 50, reference numeral 2 denotes an output unit to record onto the recording paper. In the conventional apparatus, the output unit 2 has three kinds of paper feeding mechanisms: that is, a regular size cassette paper feeding mechanism, a manual paper feeding mechanism, and an envelope paper feeding mechanism as an optional paper feeding mechanism. Reference numeral 3 denotes a memory to store information which is output from the host 5. The memory 3 has a bit map memory to store the information to be recorded by the output unit 2. A control circuit 15 reads out the information to be recorded by the output unit 2 from the memory 3 in accordance with the designated orientation.
On the other hand, reference numeral 4 denotes the operation panel. An operator inputs instructions to the host 5 and printer 50 by the operation panel 4. Reference numeral 10 denotes a paper feed changeover switch to change over the paper feeding mode of the printer 50.
In the case where the command system of a line printer is emulated by the page printer, the printing by the portrait fundamentally becomes a prerequisite.
In the page printer having two command systems such as portrait and landscape, in the case of providing, for instance, the envelope paper feeding mechanism in addition to the regular size cassette paper feeding mechanism, the paper conveying method is decided such that the short side of an envelope is set to the head position in a manner similar to the case of the other papers because of the format of the envelope and the structure of the printer.
However, in the conventional apparatus, when printing information onto an envelope based on the English specifications, in spite of the fact that the inherent object can be accomplished only when the information is printed in the landscape mode, the ordinary orientation is set in the portrait mode. Therefore, the operator first sets the optional paper feeding mechanism by operating the paper feed changeover switch 10 on the operation panel 4, thereby selecting an envelope paper feed cassette. Further, it is necessary to set the orientation to landscape by the menu system mentioned above by using the operation panel 4. Therefore, there is a drawback such that the two kinds of operations must be performed and the operations become complicated.